Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-07-17

there have been probably 20 robberies
committed in that way in the last ten
years, and none of them amounted to
very much in the way of returns, out
side of two or three. You make up your
mind to the fact, that the returns of rob-
berries are vastly exaggerated. That's not
accounted for by the fact that the
thief has to dispose Of his swag at
a discount amounting to a sacrifice. It's
because the man robbed tells lies. II you
want to make q liar out of a man rob and
then pump him on values. 1 remember a
man who yielded me SAT. What do you
think, he 'squealed' for $40, and / got the
reputation of being a great crook On the
strength of that mans lies. One day I
was taken in on suspicion in Buffalo. My
record was known, and when the chief Of
police ladled out his mess of lies to the re-
porters my little trick Of S47 became S47,-
0O0- Finally il got to SAT 600, where 1t
sticks, and when | was sentenced in
Brooklyn the detective named my offence
at that figure To show what q dan
gerous criminal / was. | didn't mind that
so much. didn't object TO the detective
believing it, ard possibly he had told 50
often that he had arrested me for il that he
thought il was true. The Judge believed
il though and put seven aud n half years
OF il on me. | could have escaped with
not more than three, and possibly one, if
it had not been for the lies-perhaps es-
capped altogether. What l want to say is
that reporters and detectives delight to
lie about thieves. They can't kick, you
know"
"You say there no are good abilities in
crooked work. How about forgers? The
Fisher and Marsh Market Jake gang, for
example,"
Now, there you strike upon the clever
lot. At least they were, for they are near
ly all in prison now. But let me tell You
that professional forgers are very few fewer
than counterfeiters, in fact, who are prac-
tically exterminated, not because of the
c%leverness Of the police, but because the
mechanical work of making notes and
bonds requires such an expensive plant,
the founding Of which attracts attention
to itself. There aie a few professional
gangs of forgers, say half a dozen, in the
history of the United States in a quarter Of
a century. The last one wa the n you
named. 1t was composed practically Of
three men. A 'scratcher,' one who does
the writing, you know; an organizer, who
plans and directs, and a third who covers
up the tracks and helps the fellow who lays
the paper down to get away. The or
ganizer in the gang | speak of was Fisher,
a calm-faced, gentlemanly young fellow Of
good address and some superficial knowl-
edge. Don't let anybody deceive you
into thinking that any crook is
o polished gentleman, learned in the
PHILOSOPHERS, converSant with the arts
and founded in literature. Why, there is
Hungry Joe, the f~amous-well, notorious,
then-bunko steerer. Why, he is an utter
yulgarian; can't speak two sentences OF
grammatical English; and verbs al
ways at war, and the objective pronoun in
the nominative case invariably. He leads
your cultured Oscar Wilde and your learned
Charles Francis Adams up to the dealer
like an unsuspecting lamb to a butchers
block. As sOon as they acquire that sort of
thing they know enough to be honest.
What's that-Goyernor Moses? Well,
Moses is sui generis; troubled with q rank
appetite for clothes and rum and no cour-
age to do a good thing or brains to plan a
trick. Pm going to speak Of him present
ly and his class"